The vacant building in this June 2017 file photo shows remnants of the former Price Chopper store in the faded facade. A Springfield-based developer is working to renovate the Pine Tree Plaza shopping center on Blue Parkway with help from a tax incentive. File photo

The vacant building in this June 2017 file photo shows remnants of the former Price Chopper store in the faded facade. A Springfield-based developer is working to renovate the Pine Tree Plaza shopping center on Blue Parkway with help from a tax incentive. File photo

Developer promises ‘dramatic improvement’ of old Price Chopper site at Pine Tree Plaza

Renovation at the Pine Tree Plaza shopping center is moving forward in Lee’s Summit, and two new tenants are expected to move into the former Price Chopper space within the next few months.

The Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council announced Nov. 2 that the redevelopment project at Blue Parkway and Jefferson Street is underway as the property owner reconfigures the former grocery store into three separate retail spaces.

Trent Overhue, the Springfield property owner and principal of Northern State Investments LLC, said in June that the company had recently purchased the property and was talking with potential retailers.

At the time, Overhue said Pine Tree Plaza had about a 35 percent occupancy. The shopping center used to be home to a Price Chopper before it moved its operations to a new store at Blue Parkway and Todd George Parkway.

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The Lee’s Summit City Council approved to a preliminary development plan and a Community Improvement District (CID) designation, which imposed an additional 1-cent special sales tax on the shopping center, in July.

By October, the city council voted to approve tax incentives for renovating the shopping center.

The redevelopment project is expected to cost more than $9 million. The CID was established to help offset up to $2.4 million in allowable redevelopment expenses, according to previous reports.

“We are going to be doing a complete façade remodel, so it should look like a new center when we are finished,” Overhue said in a news release. “This will be a dramatic improvement with all new landscaping, parking lot lighting and signage.”

So far, two new tenants have reached agreements to open for business in Pine Tree Plaza’s old Price Chopper location.

Planet Fitness plans to open a 25,000-square-foot facility at 300 S.W. Blue Parkway by the end of this year and Harbor Freight Tools is scheduled to open a 16,000-square-foot store by the spring of 2018, leaving approximately 24,000 square feet of the former grocery store available for lease, according to Overhue.

Redevelopment of two retail “wings” on the east and west sides of the former grocery store, which total about 40,000 square feet, is expected to begin early next year followed by improvements to two outbuildings, which are suitable for restaurant or medical office tenants, according to a release from the developer.

Pine Tree Plaza is located north of the new U.S. 50/Missouri 291 south interchange and is part of the city’s “Envision Lee’s Summit” redevelopment area, which aims to help Lee’s Summit achieve higher density housing and mixed-use development.

“Pine Tree Plaza is a longtime south Lee’s Summit retail fixture in a prime location, but the center has struggled with vacancy in recent years,” Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council President Rick McDowell said in a statement. “I am optimistic that this long overdue facelift will boost tenant interest, lift occupancy rates and potentially increase nearby property values.”